Japanese Guys Are Weird
by TennisMagic
Summary: He wasn't tall, he wasn't blonde, he didn't dress or act like a moron, he hoped...Daniel felt pretty confident that he'd blend in nicely during his year in Japan. That was, of course, until the darling of Hyoutei Academy's high school division, Atobe Keigo, decided they should be friends. Better study, make some NORMAL friends, and remember not all Japanese are this ridiculous...
1. So, You Can Speak Japanese?

**Hey there!** **Thanks for clicking! Hope you'll stick around.** **What is this for? Just a couple of little warnings before we start:**

**1. There will be varying degrees of ****naughty words ****in this fic. It depends on who's in a scene at any given time, but just remember that Gakuto and Shishido are going to be there. You have been warned.**

**2. There will be ****Boy/Boy pairings ****in this fic. They're not the main focus and they're****_ certainly_**** not Canon/OC, but if you can't stomach a side of gay with your tennis players I do recommend you turn back now.**

**3. Both Japanese and English will be spoken in this fic! Hopefully context will make things apparent, but as a rule of thumb:  
"If the majority of my text is normal, I am speaking Japanese."  
****_"If the majority of my text is italicised, I am speaking English."_**

**Still here? Great! Off we go!**

* * *

"So you can speak Japanese?"

"Just a little."

Dinnertime was always busy in the Oishi household, and Mrs Oishi always seemed to find herself juggling pots, pans and placemats as she prepared meals for her family. Her husband worked hard and her children were active, so they needed a lot of good, healthy food – it was just so _difficult_ organising it all on her own sometimes; setting the table and putting the chopsticks in the right places and making sure Yurie had her favourite cup all while keeping the vegetables from overcooking. For this reason, she was grateful for the extra pair of hands in the kitchen that evening. The international student was a little slow at getting things done – probably due to jet lag – but it was nice to have someone else set the table so Mrs Oishi could focus on her cooking for a change. The rest of the family only ever seemed to come home just as dinner was ready.

"Oh, just four places tonight, Daniel. Shuichiro is staying with a friend tonight…" Mrs Oishi sighed, stirring the curry that was bubbling on the stovetop. "I was hoping he would come home to meet you, but he's got a summer project to be working on…"

Daniel didn't catch most of what his host mother said to him, but he got the part about four places. He put down the placemats first, then some plates, then the cups. "Which chopsticks go where…?"

"The pink ones are Yurie's, the blue ones are mine, and the black ones are Dad's. You can use the green ones, Daniel." She smiled at him, happy for his help. "Could you get the bottle of tea out of the fridge once you've done that? I'll handle everything else, you've been such a help."

When Daniel excused himself to the bathroom, Mrs Oishi started humming to herself as she cooked. She'd liked the idea of having an international student around the house for years, and when the Hyoutei high school division put out a request for a host family for a potential student, she had contacted them immediately (well, not immediately, she'd held a family meeting first to discuss the idea.) It would be a great opportunity for Shuichiro to use his English, and Yurie would get to practise, too.

That was how they had ended up with Daniel. He had arrived at the house early in the morning, having been picked up from Narita airport by one of the Hyoutei high school teachers. He was clearly very tired after a long journey from England, and completely unprepared for the heat of a Japanese summer. Needless to say, Mrs Oishi had shown him to his room and told him to take a nap immediately. He was sixteen, in the same grade as Shuichiro, but quite a bit shorter.

Ah well, that was a good thing, really. Yurie had been terrified in case their foreign visitor was some kind of giant. Just as Mrs Oishi was thinking about Yurie, the front door opened, and the voices of her daughter and husband rang from the hallway. "We're home!" "What's for dinner, mom? Is Daniel here yet?" "Hello…" Introductions were made in the hallway, and everyone was called in for dinner.

* * *

"…how did you learn to use chopsticks, Daniel? You're foreign."  
"Yurie!"  
"Oh, my family and I would go out for dinner at Asian restaurants sometimes…it's really nothing unusual."

"You're shorter than I thought you'd be."  
"Yurie, stop."  
"I think the same thing every time I look in the mirror."  
"What are those dots on your face?"

"Yurie, be quiet and eat your dinner. Daniel has had a very long day!" Indeed, the family had only been sat around the table for fifteen minutes and Yurie was practically interrogating their foreign guest. At first it had been quite sweet, her being as curious as any other eleven year old, but the questions got more and more silly and her dinner remained untouched. Daniel's Japanese had turned out to be very good, enough to understand his new host sister's strange questions, but he spoke quite slowly and couldn't quite keep up with the girl's pace. The adults in the room were a lot more considerate, speaking a little slower than they would normally.

"Our son Shuichiro is the same age as you, Daniel." Mr Oishi said, chuckling as Daniel dropped a piece of tempura-fried sweet potato onto the table. "He wants to be a doctor, you know, so he has to study very hard." "His English is very good, you know. He needs to get into a top university if he wants to be a doctor, so maybe you can help him improve some more?"

"I'd love to." Daniel tried and once again failed to get the piece of sweet potato onto his plate. He frowned, chasing it around his placemat with his chopsticks.

"Are you going to Shuichiro's school?" Yurie was promptly reprimanded by her mother for talking with her mouth full.

"Hyoutei, actually." The sweet potato was stuck under the side of his plate. Drat.

"You're starting next Monday, and your uniform should be here by this weekend. Shall we go and get your train pass tomorrow? I'll show you around the area so you know where everything is."

"That's a fine idea." Mr Oishi smiled at his wife, "perhaps Shuichiro can go with you!

"I'll go too, I'll go too! We can get ice cream! Or shaved ice!"

"Yurie, eat your dinner before it gets cold. Daniel has eaten a lot more than you have."

"But…" "Eat."

* * *

When dinner was finished, Mrs Oishi asked Daniel to help gather up the dishes and put them in the sink for her to wash later. Yurie was _supposed_ to be helping him, but she received an all-too-convenient 'important' phone call at that very moment. Mr Oishi sat at the table, cutting out some coupons he had received in the mail as he chatted to the English boy.

"Looking forward to school, Daniel?"

"Well enough." He cringed when one of the chopsticks he was carrying fell to the floor. "A little nervous, too."

"Hm…well, I can't say I know much about Hyoutei students, but they're all very rich."

"Ah. It's probably like my school in England, then…all kinds in there."

"You'll be popular with the girls, I'm sure. Were you popular with girls in England, too?"

"My school was all boys." Daniel made a face. "Is it true that Japanese girls wear those funny lenses that make their eyes go all huge? I saw them in a music video once and they looked like aliens."

Mr Oishi just laughed in response. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of your classmates _were_ like aliens – money does strange things to a person. I'm sure you'll find somebody nice and normal to be friends with at Hyoutei, though. There will be someone, somewhere in all that strangeness."

Daniel could only hope that was true.


	2. We Will be Good Friends, You and I

He'd never been so excited about a Monday morning before.

Stepping off the train, Daniel looked around the platform until he saw a small group of boys getting out of another carriage. They were wearing the same uniform as he was, so he decided to follow them – not that he didn't remember the way to school, but he wanted to be sure he was definitely going the right direction. It would be embarrassing to turn up late on his first day, after all.

There had been other Hyoutei students in his train carriage, a trio of girls who didn't seem to have noticed him at all. Not that they would have been able to see him anyway; the train was _packed_ with people; businessmen, mostly, but also crowds and crowds of students in a rainbow of different uniforms. A very pretty girl in a blue dress and tie had been talking to her friend about the 'cute foreigner' sitting opposite them, thinking Daniel couldn't understand them. He'd wanted to say something, even just a thank you, just to see the looks on their faces!

It had only come out as a cough, though, so he just smiled at them as he got off the train.

Why was he so nervous today? "_Get a hold of yourself, Daniel._" He muttered to himself in English, so the people around him wouldn't understand.

As he made his way to school, more and more students in Hyoutei high uniforms filtered onto the same road that Daniel was walking on. Some noticed him, some didn't, some gossiped, others paid him no mind. Girls rolled down their skirts and removed their jewellery as they approached the gates, boys tidied their hair, and everyone smiled their best smiles and chorused 'Good morning, Sensei!' as they walked past the line of about three or four teachers who were standing just inside the gates, keeping an eye out for any uniform infractions.

"Good morning, Daniel." One of the female teachers approached him with a gentle smile as he walked through the gate. Daniel felt more at ease immediately – it was Masuda-sensei, his to-be homeroom teacher whom he had already met before. Masuda-sensei, along with the English conversation teacher, had been there to meet him at the airport. "Have you had a good week with your host family so far? You look a lot better rested than when I first saw you."

"Good morning, Sensei. I have, thank you."

"You're getting along with your host brother, I hope?"

"I haven't actually met him yet…" It was true, after a week of living with the Oishis Daniel still had yet to meet Shuichiro. He was always _busy_, out before Daniel was awake and home after he was already asleep. That is if he wasn't staying over at classmates' houses, doing his summer project. Daniel had seen a lot of photographs, though, and heard a lot of stories. Shuichiro sounded nice. Masuda-sensei raised an eyebrow, but kept smiling anyway.

"You remember which classroom you're in, don't you? You're in class 2-1, up on the fourth floor. I would go with you, but I need to be out here – Tanaka Mayumi! Skirt!" A girl walking past them sighed and rolled down her _ridiculously_ short skirt, mumbling an apology as she did so. "I'll see you at 8:45."

"Thank you, Sensei."

"Oh, and Daniel…your tie is on backwards."

_Oh_. Daniel smiled sheepishly at his teacher and made his way to the shoe lockers, fixing his tie as he went. He quickly found the locker with his name on and rummaged around in his new schoolbag for the key.

Why did he have so many keys already?

House, locker, shoe locker, strange key Yurie had given him that he didn't know what it was for…

He changed his shoes, leaving his shiny black shoes in the locker and putting on his 'stylish' indoor slippers. They were blue, indicating he was a second year student – he'd get around to writing his name on them later. Other students filed in and out of the shoe locker room; first years, third years, even a handful of his own classmates had come in while Daniel was struggling to locate his keys.

Hyoutei was _big_. He'd thought his own school in England was pretty large, but that was small-fry compared to Hyoutei. Daniel spent about ten minutes wandering random hallways and going up staircases before he decided yes, he was lost, and he really needed to ask for some help finding his classroom. He heard a voice from around the corner.

"Crap!" followed by a thud.

That caught Daniel's attention. Perhaps someone who could help him out? He made his way around the corner and found the source of the ruckus; a disgruntled looking boy who was glaring at the pile of books at his feet, rather than making any actual move to pick them up. Not wanting to miss a chance to make a good impression, Daniel went over to help pick up some of the books. "Need a hand?"

"Ah, you don't have to do that."

"I wanted to." Daniel handed a couple of books to the other student, who seemed almost amused after getting a proper look at Daniel's face.

"You're the international student, huh?" After re-tying his ponytail, the boy crouched down and set about picking up some of his books. "We don't get many internationals here at Hyoutei – not while I've been here, anyhow. What do they call you?"

"Daniel Forrest, class 2-1" Daniel handed over the last couple of books and the pair stood up.

"Oh really? Watanabe Arata, class 3-1." He grinned, tucking his books under his arm. "Nice to meet you."

"Oh! I didn't realise you were a senpai!" Bowing respectfully to the older student, Daniel noticed the colour of the slippers his companion was wearing. Third year red – why hadn't he noticed before? The older boy just laughed.

"Hey now, just Arata is fine."

"Arata-senpai," Daniel straightened, remembering why he'd actually gone to talk to his senior in the first place. "What floor is this…? I can't find my classroom."

"Third floor, buddy! 2-1 are upstairs; need me to show you the way?"

"That would be great…"

It didn't take long to find the staircase with Arata's help. He was the talkative type, Daniel found, and very complimentary of Daniel's Japanese, much to his embarrassment. The senior's classroom was right next to the stairs.  
"Don't be a stranger!" he'd said as he waved Daniel off up the stairs, "have a good day!"

Daniel hoped that would be the case, as he made his way up the stairs to the fourth floor. Sure enough, right next to the stairs on the fourth floor was his classroom, 2-1, with students wandering in and out. He opened the sliding door and went in.

"Morning!" Chorused a group of girls sitting near the door. Some of the students in the classroom looked up and smiled or waved, others were busy talking to friends, studying or listening to music. Daniel looked around the room and suddenly realised he had no idea where he was supposed to be sitting.

"Um…" a girl seated directly in front of the teacher's desk smiled shyly at him, having noticed his lost expression. She fiddled with her hair ribbons. "I think the message on the board is for you…"

Thanking the girl for her help, Daniel looked at the chalkboard.

'Daniel, you sit here' the message said, complete with a helpful diagram. He found his seat easily thanks to that, and hung his bag on the little hook on the side of his desk. Handy, that. Daniel surveyed the classroom again, this time from the seat he would be occupying for the majority of the next year – there weren't that many people in the class, maybe about fifteen, at most, with a pretty even split of boys and girls. A tall, blue haired boy was sat _on_ the desk to his right, talking to someone Daniel couldn't quite see; a boyish looking girl was throwing around a basketball that Daniel was fairly certain wasn't meant to be in the classroom, and a boy with long hair was looking out of the window with a dreamy expression on his face. A nice mix of people, by the looks of things. Hoping for the best, Daniel took his bottle of tea out of his bag and waited quietly for 8:45.

* * *

The first thing Daniel thought was strange about Japanese school was standing up and bowing when the teacher came in. Everyone would stand, bow, then sit down when the teacher told them to do so. Masuda-sensei smiled at her class and wiped the chalkboard clean.

"Good morning everybody," she said after counting the number of students in the room. "Welcome back – I hope you all had a good summer. I _also_ hope you all remembered to hand in your summer workbooks to Takeda-sensei in the staff room this morning." She laughed when a boy in the back row cursed loudly. "If you have it with you now, I can take it to him after homeroom, but I will only do this once! Now, I don't know if you've all noticed yet, but we have an international student with us today." All eyes suddenly went on Daniel, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "To help him get to know you all better, I'd like everybody to stand up, one at a time, and introduce themselves. We'll start from this side of the room. Yoshida, if you please."

"Well!" A girl at the front of the room, next to the window, stood up and beamed around the room. "My name is Yoshida Naho, but everybody calls me Nahopi! My favourite food is curry bread." The teacher nodded and motioned for Naho to sit down, and the boy seated behind her stood up and introduced himself in a similar fashion. Daniel sketched out a quick diagram of the room in his notebook and jotted down everyone's names as they went, as well as any other details he managed to catch.

"I'm Uchida Hanako, that's Uchii, to most people." The boyish girl with the basketball had said, running a hand through her cropped hair. "I'm captain of the girls' basketball team."

"My name is Oshitari Yuushi," said the tall, blue haired boy whose actual seat was just in front of Daniel, to the left, "I come from Osaka, and am on the tennis team." Daniel decided that Oshitari talked weirdly.

"My name is Ueda Miho, but my nickname is Ribbon," a couple of people chuckled as the girl in front of Masuda-sensei's desk introduced herself, her voice barely a whisper, "I like sewing."

Daniel had been so busy keeping track of everybody's names, nicknames and other random details that he hadn't put any thought into his own introduction. It came all too quickly, unfortunately, and he stood up and opened his mouth to speak before realising he had no idea what to say.

"Uh…I'm Daniel Forrest, I came from England, and…" Masuda-sensei grinned at him encouragingly, "…I like…books?" He promptly sat down, hideously embarrassed. Nobody else seemed to mind, though, and the boy to Daniel's right stood up to introduce himself.

"_My name is Atobe Keigo_," the boy said in _perfect_ English. British English, to boot. Daniel was so surprised he almost fell out of his seat. "_I am the captain of the boys' tennis club, and spent the majority of my childhood in England._" The silver-haired boy shook Daniel's hand with a smile, "_I think we are going to be good friends, you and I_."

* * *

The first class was math, which was pretty similar to how it was in England, but at a more advanced level. Daniel had followed it pretty well; he hoped…at least his notes looked like everyone else's. Daniel had hoped to go for a walk during break, but the class overran and the Japanese history teacher turned up almost as soon as the math teacher left. Eventually, when the lunch break began and Daniel's classmates made an immediate move for their lunchboxes or wallets, someone sat on Daniel's desk.

"_What part of England are you from, Daniel?_" Atobe smiled at him again, making himself good and comfy on Daniel's desk. While he was impressed by the other boy's fluency in the English language, Daniel had to remember he was in Japan to speak _Japanese_, and responded to Atobe in that language.

"Wiltshire. I'm not sure if you know it, but…"  
"_I know Wiltshire well. I lived closer to London, myself._" It looked like Atobe was going to insist on using English at all times. He seemed almost excited to be using it, actually. "_You didn't attend Eton, did you?_"

"No, I didn't. Father wanted me to go but I didn't really feel like it."

"_I see. I have a friend who goes there, is all. I moved here after leaving primary school, otherwise I would have gone as well._"

"Don't speak to him in English, Atobe, he wants to speak Japanese." The blue haired boy, Oshitari, took a seat on Atobe's desk. "Ignore him, he's just showing off as usual."

"You have lovely hair." Another voice, gentler this time, came from somewhere behind him, and he turned around to be faced with the long haired boy he'd seen earlier that day. He'd forgotten this one's name already…"It's a lovely colour."

"Uh, I think our hair is the same colour."

"That's why it's such a great colour." He beamed, "I'm Taki, in case you forgot."

The three boys chatted to Daniel enthusiastically, and he found out quite a bit about them. They were all on the tennis team, for one thing. He did notice, though, that while Atobe was talking to him, others seemed almost reluctant to come over. Were they frightened of Atobe or something? He seemed like a nice guy, if a little domineering…only Oshitari and Taki, who were apparently long-time friends of Atobe's, were willing to break into the conversation.

So he thought.

"Hey assholes!" The sliding door opened with a bang and a boy with red hair practically bounced into the room, ruffling Oshitari's hair when he reached the little group around Daniel's desk. "So this is the new guy, huh? Does he speak Japanese? What's his name? Where's he from? What are those weird dots on his face?"

"My name is Daniel…" The boy was short. Really short. Shorter than Daniel, which was _great_ – it seemed like everyone he'd met over the past week was convinced all non-Japanese had to be eight-foot giants or something. He also spoke _way too fast_, so fast that Daniel caught almost none of what he actually said.

"Well shit! Looks like you speak Japanese after all! _I'm Gakuto! I'm tennis club!_"

"Just speak to him in Japanese, twit, your English is terrible." Oshitari smacked Gakuto in the back of the head. Daniel couldn't get over how weird Oshitari sounded when he spoke.

"Whatever. What're you drinking, Daniel? Can I have some?"

"Okay…?" He handed his bottle of tea to Gakuto, figuring it was for the best. The redhead received another smack from Oshitari and was told sternly not to drink it all.

"I forgot mine in my classroom, Yuushi! At least _Daniel_ is being nice to me!"

"Your classroom is only down the hall; go get your own drink. Where's Shishido?"

"Making out with his boyfriend somewhere."

Daniel's eyes widened, but Atobe patted his shoulder and rolled his eyes. "He's joking," he frowned at Gakuto, having reverted back to Japanese for the time being, "Shishido is probably having lunch with his _friend_ Choutarou today; they play doubles in our tennis club."

"Um…are you _all_ in the tennis club?"

"Pretty much." Gakuto smirked. "We're the only ones worth knowing to be honest."

"Ah." Gakuto's attitude was surprising to Daniel, but not something he hadn't encountered before in England. He just hadn't really expected to meet a guy like that in Japan…it seemed like most of Atobe's little crowd were like that, actually.

"There's nine of us in the tennis team, Daniel." Taki, arguably the most normal of the group so far, smiled at him. Daniel decided he liked Taki, if only because he was the only one making an effort to speak clearly. "We've pretty much owned the place since middle school. There's us four here, Shishido, Jiroh, and three guys in the grade below us; Choutarou, Kabaji and Hiyoshi. Shishido and Jiroh are in the same class as Gakuto, just down the hall. You should go say hello to them sometime."

"Shishido's a dick. Don't be his friend." Gakuto was sat in Oshitari's lap, chewing some gum that, if Daniel had overheard correctly, he had stolen from Shishido's bag.

"Gakuto's a liar. Don't listen to a word he says." Taki stuck his tongue out at Gakuto, then turned his attention back to Daniel. "They're all very nice, well, most of the time." He looked unsure. "Some of the time…" he sighed "okay, Hiyoshi isn't very nice at all, but the others are. Oh, did your host mother pack you a lunchbox, Daniel? Let's all eat together."

* * *

"How was your first day at Hyoutei, Daniel?" Daniel was so focused on sweeping the floor, he didn't even realise Masuda-sensei was talking to him. He accidentally swept a pile of paper cuttings over the teacher's feet.

"Oops! Sorry Sensei…"

"It's alright."

Daniel had heard about after school cleaning duty before, but he was surprised that even a school as fancy as Hyoutei made the students do it. Oshitari, being tall, was wiping the chalkboard clean while Atobe pretended to be doing something productive with a pile of paper on the teacher's desk. Class 2-3 had apparently already finished with their cleaning duty, as Gakuto was outside the classroom door pulling faces and making offensive hand gestures at Oshitari.

"I had a good day, but the classes were a little difficult to understand…I thought my Japanese was better than that, really, I've been learning since I was really little."

"You probably just haven't met the specialist vocabulary before; you'll get the hang of it eventually." As Daniel spoke to the teacher, Naho took his broom from him and swept the paper cuttings away. "Don't forget you have some special things on your timetable tomorrow. When your classmates have classical Japanese, you will be in the library doing personal study, alright?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Have you made any friends?"

"I'm his friend." Daniel almost jumped out of his skin when Atobe appeared out of nowhere at his side. "The classroom is clean; why don't you come to tennis club with us, Daniel?"

Masuda-sensei shook her head. "Atobe, Daniel should really go home to his host family today. I'll see you all tomorrow."

"Goodbye Sensei!" Everybody shouted as the teacher left the room. As Daniel gathered up his things, he noticed Gakuto wasn't alone outside the classroom anymore – as well as Oshitari and Taki, he had been joined by a group of boys Daniel didn't recognise at all. Two of them, a very tall boy with fair hair and a shorter one with very sharp features, were lost in their own conversation and completely ignoring the others.

'They must be the tennis team,' he figured, 'and those two are probably that doubles pair Atobe was talking about. Shishido looks tall…'

"Come on, Atobe!"

"You're taking forever!"

"Alright, alright." Atobe grinned at Daniel as he passed him, "see you tomorrow, ahn?"

"Yeah…bye."

* * *

Shuichiro still wasn't home when Daniel got back.

"He starts back at school tomorrow…" Mrs Oishi had sighed as she made dinner, "I don't like him coming home so late, he'll be tired! I know he's only out working, but still…"

Shuichiro wouldn't be the only tired one – Daniel was _exhausted_, and almost fell asleep both in the shower and while watching TV with Yurie after dinner. He managed to stay awake long enough to make a blog post about his day and lament the fact nobody in Japan seemed to know what freckles were, though, and email his parents who were desperate to know how his first day of school had been. After uploading the day's photos to Facebook, he decided to give in and go to bed even though it was only about ten o'clock.

He didn't sign off without updating his status, though.

'_First day of school – survived! Japanese guys are weird…_'


	3. Making Friends

It was a little later that same week that Daniel met Shuichiro for the first time.

"Hello, stranger," he'd said as he wandered into the kitchen at about half past six in the morning, only to find someone else already using the toaster, "I don't think we've met before."

Shuichiro almost dropped the butter in surprise. "Oh! Good morning, we haven't spoken yet, have we? You must be Daniel."

"William, actually." He waited until Oishi's expression changed to one of confusion. "I lied, it is Daniel. Shuichiro, right?"

"Right. Don't play tricks on me so early in the morning!" The taller boy tried his best to sound serious, but couldn't help cracking a smile. Daniel decided Shuichiro was going to be a good host brother to have, even if he did have silly hair. "When is your train? Mine is at quarter past seven, so…"

"Ten to eight." Daniel opened the fridge, hoping Yurie hadn't eaten all the peach yoghurts.

"Really? But that means you don't have to leave the house for over an hour yet! Do make sure you're getting enough sleep, won't you? You'll be at risk of all kinds of health problems if you aren't well rested, and it would really put a downer on-"

"Did anyone ever tell you that you worry too much? I appreciate it, but don't forget your toast."

"Oh!"

Fortunately, Shuichiro's toast was saved just in time, allowing Daniel to finally use the toaster just as the remaining members of his host family made their way downstairs. It was the first time the entire family had eaten together since he'd arrived, which was nice, but also served to distract poor Shuichiro who ended up bolting out of the door at five past seven.

"Watch TV with me, Daniel." Yurie made herself comfy on the sofa and seized the remote. "It's only a short show, I promise!"

* * *

Daniel hadn't realised how compelling Japanese children's television was, and he was lucky to catch his train on time, in the end. He made it, though, and upon reaching his classroom on the fourth floor he was surprised to find most of his male classmates half-dressed and the girls missing.

"Morning," Oshitari waved to Daniel as if standing around the classroom without a shirt on was the norm, "We have P.E. first thing today."

"Okay…?" He went over to his desk and took his sports bag off the little bag hook, nodding to Taki who had peeped around the curtain he was hiding behind to change. "I'd have figured a school like Hyoutei would have changing facilities."

"It does, but only the girls care enough to walk that far."

"And if Masuda-sensei came in?"

"She doesn't care. Nobody cares aside from the girls. And Taki." There was an indignant squeal from behind one of the curtains at that particular remark. "He'll change like normal at tennis club, but doesn't like changing in the classroom for some reason. How was your visit to the tea ceremony club yesterday? Informative?"

Daniel shrugged and set about changing into his P.E. kit like the others, wondering how Oshitari knew he'd visited the tea ceremony club after school the previous day. Had he overheard Masuda-sensei offering to take Daniel there? It had been a pretty interesting experience, sure, and the little sweets were nice, but the tea itself was kind of horrible. He'd finished it out of politeness anyway. On the other side of the room, a couple of boys were discussing what they were to be doing in P.E. that day; soccer, apparently, against class 2-3.

"It'll be an easy victory for class 2-1 with me on the team." Daniel _wished_ Atobe would give him some warning before popping up behind him like that. "And it helps that although Shishido and Gakuto are good at soccer, they spend the entire match arguing instead of co-operating." Ah, yes, Shishido. Shishido had turned out to be the _short_ one in the Shishido-Choutarou doubles pair, despite being older. Whoops.

"And Jiroh's a dead weight this early in the morning, we have a clear advantage. Are you any good, Daniel?" He didn't think he'd ever get used to how Oshitari talked.  
"Ah, I'm not really a sporty guy, but I'm decent?"

"Good enough." Atobe stood on his chair. "The winner will be class 2-1!"

"The loser will be class 2-3!" The other boys yelled, earning them a disapproving look from Masuda-sensei as she came in with the register.

* * *

The winner had been class 2-1 after all.  
True to what Atobe and Oshitari had said, Jiroh had spent most of the match standing in a corner and rubbing his eyes sleepily, while Gakuto and Shishido were sent off early on. The 'official' reason they were sent off was because of a foul, but although Daniel wasn't intimately familiar with the rules of soccer he was pretty sure that punching did _not_ constitute a standard foul. Even before being sent off, Shishido had been a pretty violent player and didn't discriminate for his friends, tackling both Oshitari and Taki and sending the latter crashing straight into Daniel. They'd laughed it off, but left Daniel aching considerably for most of the morning.

It was worth it, though; the girls had won their match too, and the victories left the class in high spirits even for their surprise world history test. The atmosphere in the classroom was still buzzing by lunchtime, and Daniel set about unpacking his lunchbox.

"I," Atobe tapped Daniel's desk to get his attention, "have some commitments during the lunch hour."

Daniel was too busy trying not to laugh at the strange way in which Atobe kept referring to himself to actually respond, so he just nodded, biting his lip. Oshitari and Taki were waiting for the tennis captain by the classroom door.

"Sorry Daniel, tennis club business today. Let's eat together tomorrow?" The three tennis players left, Taki giving a little wave as he went, and at that moment Daniel came to a sudden realisation.

He'd been eating lunch with the tennis team all week – now what would he do?

There weren't many people in the classroom; Naho was with a small group of giggling girls, a couple of boys were listening to music, and Ribbon was reading over her history notes, eating what appeared to be leftover spaghetti in her lunchbox. As Daniel debated who to approach about eating lunch together, someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Daniel, are you busy?" It was Uchii, pushing up her glasses with one hand and clutching a clipboard with the other. "How do you feel about sprinting?"

"Huh…?" What a strange question to ask. "It's alright, why?"

Uchii wrote something down on her clipboard, looking very excited. "Great! We're picking events for sports day at the end of the month. You'll be doing a fifty-metre sprint, okay? You're also in the tug-of-war and the class relay because everybody does it."

"Oh, alright then." She beamed at him and turned to leave. Daniel briefly considered asking if the basketball captain wanted to eat lunch with him, but decided it would be a little weird to ask a _girl_ something like that. After hearing Uchii decline another girl's offer of lunch, as she had a basketball club meeting to attend, he stood up and picked up his lunchbox, deciding to go for a walk.

"Hi Daniel!"

"Hello Daniel!"

"Oh hey, it's Daniel!"

He wasn't used to all this attention, not at all. He'd been stopped on every staircase and waved at in every corridor on the way to the cafeteria, and while everyone was certainly being very _nice_, it really made Daniel rather uncomfortable. He fiddled with his tie as he slipped into the cafeteria, hoping to remain unseen.

It was huge; a beautifully decorated room that wouldn't be out of place in Daniel's own home back in England. The day's menu was written up on the wall in both Japanese and English, for some reason, and a steady stream of students wandered around the room with trays, looking for a table to sit at with their friends. The Japanese babbling that was going straight into one ear and out the other made Daniel very aware of one thing.  
He barely knew his new school outside his classroom, nor any of the people in it.

"Yo, Daniel!" He froze; silently praying nobody would be staring at him after whoever that just was hollered his name from across the room. Glancing around, he was relieved to find that the other students were too preoccupied with their meals to even turn their heads. All but one – the source of that familiar voice. "Daniel! Come over here!"

Arata-senpai from the first day, of course. Daniel obediently went over to the older boy's table and greeted him politely before being pulled down into the nearest free chair. "Ah, will your friends mind me sitting here, senpai?"

"They're playing soccer outside, I'm all alone!" Arata leaned back in his chair and sighed dramatically, the grin on his face showing he wasn't really all that bothered. "I'd have gone to join them, but screwed my ankle up real bad yesterday. Tragedy!"

"That's…really unfortunate."

"Oh well, you're here now, so I'm not lonely anymore!" He started eating from the bowl that was in front of him, elbows on the table and all. Daniel asked his senior what he was having for lunch today. "Just ramen…oh hey, is that a lunchbox? Did your host mother make it for you? I want to see!"

"Uh, okay?"

And so, Daniel ended up spending the lunch break eating with Arata-senpai. The older boy was a curious type – asking him a barrage of questions that were increasingly difficult to understand as senpai had a habit of speaking with his mouth full when excited.

"How many people are in your family, Daniel? Any brothers or sisters?"

"No…just me and my parents."

"Aah, I've got a little brother and sister, it's the worst! Any pets?"

"A cat."

"What's his name?"

"Her, she's called Tallulah and is very spoilt. Do you have any pets, senpai?"

"I have a cat too, aren't they the best? My cat's name is Riku – he always steals my food!"

"Cats are funny like that, aren't they? Tallulah always wants attention, you know. She always sat on my homework and stuff."

"Homework, huh? What's your favourite class back in England?"

"I always liked English, actually."

"Really? Why?"

"Well…we get to do a lot of creative writing, which is fun. You know this one time we had to write a whole story from the point of view of an onion…"

"You know, you seem really excited to be talking about this. It's kinda cute."

Did he really? Oh, that just made Daniel hideously embarrassed. Was he talking too much? Damn, he really needed to watch his mouth – he hadn't noticed himself babbling on like that before. "Sorry…I haven't really been asked any of that stuff yet."

"I figured." Arata sucked up the last of his noodles and leaned on the table, smiling like a cat. "You hang out with those tennis team guys, right? Atobe's in your class."

"He…he is, yeah. How do you know?" Ask a stupid question – the tennis club captain was obviously some kind of school celebrity, and he and the other tennis regulars completely owned the place. Why tennis was superior to any other club, Daniel wasn't sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was Atobe who brought prestige to the tennis club, and not the other way around.

"They're all kinda…" he brought a hand up to his head and waggled his finger, "…cuckoo, to be honest. The world revolves around them, so I doubted they would have asked much about you. Meanwhile you probably know their entire life histories, mothers' maiden names and shoe sizes, right?"

"…pretty much, actually." Arata just kept smiling; it was starting to creep Daniel out, actually – was it because he was right about something? Daniel silently wondered how often his senpai was wrong, for him to be so delighted about such a little victory.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they're nice guys, but they're in a world of their own. I don't actually know them very well but I do know that much."

"Thanks, senpai, I'll keep that in mind." As he packed away his lunchbox, Daniel sneakily checked his phone under the table in case his host mother had sent him any messages. It was a Japanese phone, which he was still getting to grips with, but he'd managed to successfully put it into silent mode and learn how to be subtle about checking his messages at school.

Or so he thought.

"Hey, is that a phone? Naughty!" Daniel received a playful punch to the arm from his right hand side. "No need to tense up like that, everyone brings them in. Did you know Atobe has about five of them?"

"That's a bit excessive." Finding no messages, he put the phone away again. "I thought you weren't allowed phones in school."

"Hyoutei's special like that – do you really expect the kids of celebrities, CEOs and other high-fliers to be parted with their phones for a whole day? Not likely. As long as you're not messing with them in class the teachers don't really care." Just to prove his point, Arata whipped out his own phone and sent a few text messages without bothering to be subtle.

"Okay, I get it no- hey!" Daniel's phone vanished from his hands, and the older student gleefully started pressing buttons on the device. "What are you doing, senpai?"

"Just having a look, wait a moment." True to his word, Arata handed the phone back after a while, as promised. Daniel had his suspicions.

"What did you do to it?"

"I _improved_ it!" He tapped the side of his nose, "and you'll just have to find out how for yourself! Now if you'll excuse me, I'd better be heading back to class – come visit me, okay? And actually come this time; you broke my heart!"

"Sorry senpai…" With that, the older boy left, ponytail swinging behind him as he walked very strangely on his bad ankle. Daniel smiled for a moment, glad to have finally (hopefully) made a friend outside of his class.

The smile faded when he realised Arata-senpai had left his tray behind for Daniel to clean up.

* * *

"Look at you, Mr Popular!"

"Ah, not really…" Daniel could only cringe as his phone, which was sitting on the sofa, beeped for what had to be the eighth time since dinner was served. Taki had noticed Daniel's phone in the front pocket of his schoolbag during cleanup duty that day, and as a result he had ended up with the entire tennis team's numbers and phone email addresses, even the first year members he barely even knew. The messages were most likely from Gakuto, who had been sending Daniel updates about every little thing he was doing from the moment school let out. 'There's a guy speaking English next to me on the train', 'Yuushi says it's Italian not English wtf', 'is there even a difference really?' and Daniel's personal favourite, 'stepped in gum LIFE RUINED!'

"I'm glad to see you're making friends." Mrs Oishi put a few more pork cutlets on Daniel's plate, having noticed the international student eyeing them hopefully. "I was worried at first, but you're doing just fine. Shuichiro doesn't get half as many messages as you do!"

"Mom…"

"Ah, quality is better than quantity, though…"

"Oh, that reminds me! Have you made any plans with your school friends after school on Saturday, Daniel?" Daniel shook his head in reply, as his mouth was a little busy with a pork cutlet. Saturday morning classes, the invention of the devil himself – at least Hyoutei only had them every other Saturday; Shuichiro's school had classes _every_ Saturday morning. "I was wondering if you and Shuichiro could spend some time together. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Daniel's host brother chewed his lip anxiously. "Mom…you know I'm busy on Saturdays…"

"Of course…why don't you invite one of your classmates out somewhere, then? You know you're allowed out until eight, right? Or a little longer if you call us first."

"No fair!" Yurie whined, "I have to be home before it gets dark!"

"Because you're eleven. Shuichiro and Daniel are older and more responsible, so they're allowed to stay out late. Now eat your rice."

Daniel's phone beeped again from the other side of the room – that had to be a good eleven times now; who was trying to contact him that much? Probably just Gakuto.

The phone had beeped a grand total of twenty-six times by the time dinner had ended, the table had been cleared and Daniel had helped with the dishes. Curled up on the couch with his host family watching some program about capybaras, he finally got to trawl through his inbox.

Sure enough, twenty-five of the messages were from Gakuto. The most recent one, however, was not.

'Gakuto thinks your phone is broken. I told him you were probably busy but he thinks everyone in the world should have their phones glued to their hands like him – crazy! Anyway, we were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us after school on Saturday; that's me, Gakuto and Shishido. We could go to karaoke or something and maybe have dinner if your host family is cool with that? It's okay if you don't want to, though.  
-Taki'


	4. Hanging Out

There was a strange sense of camaraderie on the train that Saturday morning.

It was emptier than usual – less salary men, a handful of school kids, Daniel was even able to get a seat. He glanced around the train as he put in his headphones, looking for any faces he recognised from across the week - the gaggle of giggly middle school girls who carried brown and teal schoolbags where nowhere to be seen, thank goodness. The boys in the grey checked trousers were there, as were the pretty girl with the blue dress and tie and her friend. Although none of the students from different schools spoke to one another, the odd smile or knowing glance was shared between them, as if to say they understood. Like saying 'well, we've all got to suffer Saturday morning classes, so good luck with that.'

It wasn't actually as bad as Daniel had imagined, though. His English friends had been shocked and appalled at the very notion of having school on a Saturday, but the atmosphere seemed a little more relaxed than normal. Students were tired after a long week, some dozed on their desks during class, and during his 'self-study' period in the library Daniel took the opportunity to read a music magazine from the shelf, trying to understand the Japanese music scene a little better so as to have some common ground with his schoolmates.

"Weird…" He sighed as he turned the page to be faced with yet another beaming, sparkling idol group who were probably about nine years old or something. He didn't really get idol groups, to be honest – they all seemed so…samey. After reading an article about a nice girl with a guitar and scanning the top ten releases chart, he went back to the pages of near-identical groups of attractive, but somewhat empty looking idols.

They had to make some decent music; otherwise they wouldn't be popular, right? But how would he even know where to start looking out of all the groups? It was just one of those Japanese things he didn't really understand.

He'd have to ask the others later.

* * *

"Move your ass, Taki! I'm hungry!"

"Just a minute…Daniel, could you help me keep this locker closed while I lock it?"

"Okay." Daniel crouched down to help hold Taki's locker door closed while the other boy fumbled with his key, Gakuto stood outside the classroom door pouting and tapping his foot impatiently. Daniel, too, was looking forward to going out with the others, but liked to think he had a little more patience. After a struggle, Taki's overflowing locker was eventually defeated and locked.

"Come _on_ ladies! I'm wasting away!"

"Gakuto, shut up."

"How about _you_ shut up, Ryoh?"

"Why do I even agree to hang out with you?"

"Because you love me."

"Bitch."

"Asshole."

"Girls, girls, you're both very pretty." Oshitari smacked both of his shorter teammates on the back of the head as he walked past them. "See you on Monday."

"Oh piss off, Yuushi."

Gakuto and Shishido went straight back to their bickering as the foursome made their way to the shoe lockers. Having watched a couple of tennis practices, Daniel noted that what Gakuto lacked in terms of stamina on the courts, he made up for in being able to hold a rally of insults almost indefinitely. He walked a little way ahead of them and chatted to Taki instead, who was rolling his eyes and sighing in exasperation.

_Beep_.

Upon reaching the shoe lockers, Daniel leant against his locker and checked his phone for new messages. There was one from his host mother.  
'Dad will be home late tonight so we'll be having dinner at around 8:30PM. You can have dinner with your friends if you want, or you can come home. Have fun today and stay safe –Mum.'

"Hey…" He slipped his phone back into his pocket and set about changing his shoes, having to raise his voice a little so Taki would hear him over the general chatter of the other students as well as Shishido and Gakuto's continuing argument. "I don't think I'll be doing dinner tonight."

"Oh? What's the matter? Won't your host family let you?"

"I'm allowed, but…it's still pretty early days and I'd rather not skip out on family time too much yet, you know?"

"I get it." Taki smiled and closed his shoe locker, putting on his outdoor shoes which were distinctly more faded than Daniel's new, shining black ones. "When do you have to be home?"

"Eight…"

"That late? Awesome! We can just have some snacks at karaoke or something instead of a proper meal."

Gakuto prodded Taki hard in the back. "Stop talking about food, dammit! Let's go and actually _eat_ something!"

The rumble of someone's stomach, clearly audible even over the noise of the shoe locker room, served as unspoken agreement that it was time to go. Slinging their bags over their shoulders, the four boys made their way out of the shoe lockers and out of the school gates. Just as Daniel was about to turn to his companions and make some inane comment about the weather or something like that, he instead found himself faced with a small girl with her hair tied up in ribbons.

"Ah, did you need something, Ribbon-chan?" The group stopped, and Ribbon just smiled a little awkwardly.

"No, not really. Have a nice weekend, Daniel-kun. Everyone." The boys nodded to her politely, and she left without another word in the other direction. They continued on their way into town, Daniel having to endure Shishido and Gakuto's constant chorusing of 'Daniel-kuuuuuuuun!' It seemed that only a handful of girls and a few teachers ever bothered using honorifics with Daniel, and Taki assured him that he didn't need to bother with them when talking to the tennis team.

As they walked around the concrete maze of shops and restaurants, Gakuto suddenly came to a halt outside a KFC and announced they were going to eat lunch there.

"Gakuto…since we've got Daniel with us, don't you think we should eat something a little more Japanese? He could have KFC at home."

"Everyone likes KFC though! Besides, it's my birthday next week, so this should totally be my birthday party." The redhead folded his arms and beamed as if he'd just announced the most amazing thing ever and all present should be astounded by his genius. Instead, the remaining members of the party just sighed and followed Gakuto into the restaurant. It was only when they were all sat down at a corner table, trays of fried chicken and other hideously unhealthy foods in front of them, that Daniel realised that Gakuto had mentioned his birthday.

"It's your birthday, Gakuto?"

"Yup, on the 12th."

"Mine's on the 29th." Shishido put in before shoving most of a chicken leg in his mouth.

"But mine's more important. Very important, actually, you should all feel privileged to be invited to my birthday party – Jiroh was invited too, but he was busy, apparently."

"But Gakuto…" Taki carefully opened a packet of ketchup, so as to not get any on his uniform, "are you sure you want your birthday party without the others here? Jiroh _wanted _to come along today, but he already had plans with his-"

"Pillow, probably. Lazy ass."

"No…but anyway, what about Oshitari? Aren't you-"

"-I'm having a big party _next_ year! I don't need one this year, right?" The redhead looked keen to change the subject, "hey Daniel, when's your birthday?"

It was in early March, which caused Gakuto endless amusement as this meant Daniel was younger than _all_ of the second year tennis players. Across the course of the conversation, Daniel ended up being told all of the tennis team's birthdays, and he diligently entered them into his phone. Well, as quickly as he could manage what with having grease all over his hands from the chicken. The rest of the conversation went on without Daniel for the most part, as Shishido and Gakuto continued their earlier bickering and Taki attempted to mediate by asking the shortest of the group what he wanted for his birthday. Daniel contemplated his food; it was good, and tasted pretty much the same as it did in England. It was still different somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on whether it was something in the food, or the fact he was surrounded by Japanese people while Japanese music played through the speakers and the very condiment packets he was using had Japanese writing on them. He continued absentmindedly eating his food, until it had become apparent that he was spacing out.

"…done yet? We're off to karaoke after Taki's bought some of his _feminine products_." Shishido smirked; ignoring Taki's shrieked protests of 'moisturiser!'

* * *

Daniel gladly passed the microphone he was holding to Gakuto's grabby hands as he sat down, really rather embarrassed. As the redhead jumped up on the table, narrowly avoiding everyone's drinks and shouting along to what Daniel recognised as a Lady Gaga song, Shishido handed his own microphone to Taki and settled down next to Daniel, rescuing his melon soda from the table.

"Didn't you say you don't have karaoke boxes in England? Sounds like hell on earth having to do karaoke in a giant room with all those people you don't know…and Gakuto would get thrown out of the window pretty fast."

It was true, England didn't have karaoke like Japan did – granted, Japan was where the practice came from, but it was still pretty surprising to just sign up at reception on the ground floor, be handed a basket with two funny machines and two microphones in, and go to a private room with nobody else listening in. There was even a little phone in the room to call reception and order food and drinks and stuff with. Daniel was relieved about the whole private room thing, but he still didn't like singing in front of people, even just three guys from school.

"Karaoke is mostly in bars where I live, so I wouldn't really know what it's like. Can't drink yet."

"Neither can we. Oh, want to pick the next song?" Shishido offered one of the little machines, which were actually handy little doohickeys you could use to search for a choose songs to sing, adjust the pitch, and other nifty things. Daniel politely declined. "Okay, I'll pick one then. Oi, Taki! If you're ordering something, get me another melon soda!"

"Okay," Taki took the phone from its place on the wall, "want anything, Daniel?"

"I'll take a melon soda too."  
"Alright then…ah, hello, could we have two melon sodas, a peach juice…"

"Cola!" Gakuto called, forgetting he was holding his microphone and deafening everybody.

"Ouch! Sorry, add cola and snack plate C onto that please. Thank you." He hung up the phone, passed his microphone back to Shishido and sat down, rummaging through his schoolbag for his phone. "You haven't sung very much, Daniel, you're not bored are you?"

"No…I just don't know what to sing."

"Oh, sing anything! My sisters do Korean songs a lot and just make the words up as they go."

"I really don't have any ideas…"

Daniel ended up sitting there with one of his notebooks, taking down the names and artists of the songs his companions were singing – maybe that would help him learn to understand the Japanese music scene a little better? Gakuto and Shishido had a particular taste for western music that he already knew, but the odd Japanese rock or idol track would come up occasionally and Taki leaned more towards the girl group side of things. He would get up to sing occasionally, and even had a shot at this one song he kept hearing in a car ad on TV, but the lyrics were moving a little too fast for him to keep up. Fortunately, nobody minded if he put the same song on again multiple times – Gakuto had done the same one four times in a single hour. As the hours passed, the songs got progressively sillier, the snacks and sugary drinks kept coming and the idea of putting in any effort became a distant memory, Daniel found himself having a much better time, not even feeling all that uncomfortable when Gakuto flopped against his shoulder after a particularly rowdy, shouty rendition of his favourite song.

It was at the end of one of Daniel's more successful attempts at singing solo that one of the staff came in with their third tray of drinks and second pizza, as well as a cake for Taki and a bowl full of potato chips.

"Oh yeah! _This_ is dinner!" Gakuto picked out the biggest slice of pizza and took it for himself.

"You gotta try putting the potato chips onto the pizza, Daniel, it sounds weird but it's really awesome."

Daniel took one of the strawberries from the top of Taki's cake and popped it in his mouth, suddenly having a thought. "Uh…I'm meant to be having dinner with my host family later. Oops."

"Oops indeed. I'll have your share of the pizza then."  
"Hey! I'll be able to manage _one_ slice!" He protested, but wasn't actually sure he could eat much more and still be able to eat at home. Apparently, his guilt showed on his face as Taki patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"They won't mind. Do you know that song from Titanic?" Daniel nodded, and Taki handed him one of the microphones as he put the song into the machine.

* * *

"I'm home…" Daniel kicked off his shoes and put them into the shoe cupboard, where they belonged. He could hear the table being set for dinner, and his host siblings chattering away. One voice, though, he couldn't quite place, and when he went into the kitchen he found himself faced with a boy he'd never seen before. He was tall – not as tall as Shuichiro, but still tall – with bright red hair and a band aid stuck on his face in a seemingly random place.

"Nya, are you Daniel? I'm Eiji!" His enormous blue eyes almost seemed to sparkle with enthusiasm. Far too much enthusiasm for so late in the evening, really. "_You speak Japanese_?"

"He does, don't worry." Shuichiro put a hand on Eiji's shoulder and smiled. "We went to middle school together, Daniel. Eiji comes over for dinner on Saturdays."

"He's a better big brother than Shuichiro is!" That earned Yurie, who was putting chopsticks on the table, a glare from her _real_ older brother. Daniel set about getting the bottle of tea from the fridge and pouring out cups of it for everybody to make himself useful, before everyone sat down to eat.

Mr Oishi stirred his miso soup, waving a little to get Daniel's attention. "How was your afternoon, Daniel? Did you have fun with your friends?"

"It was fun, yeah…" His voice cracked a little from having strained it while singing.

"I hope you took a lot of photos, your parents will be happy to know you're settling in."

"You're at Hyoutei, right?" Eiji, who had taken a seat next to Shuichiro that was usually reserved for Yurie, piped up suddenly. "Aren't they all weird? Is Atobe in your class?"  
"I'm Atobe's friend, apparently."

"And the little jumpy one with the red hair, do you know him?"

"Gakuto? We went out together after school today."

Eiji pulled a face. "You should have come to Seigaku High instead– that's my school! Everyone there is super nice and not weird or stuck up or anything. Oishi should have come too, but he's gonna be a doctor and save lots of people!"

"That I am," Shuichiro put some more vegetables on Eiji's plate, chuckling when the other boy whined at him for doing so, "and you're going to be a stuntman so I can train you, right?"

"Right!"

"That's delightful." As Daniel quietly deboned the fish on his plate, he couldn't help but notice an extra brightness in Shuichiro's smile, and the little lift in his spirits. He'd never seen his host brother so enthusiastic about anything before. As the pair told Daniel all about their middle school tennis days, it was all he could do to not point out how freakishly in sync they were, even pausing to take a drink at the exact same time.

"Shuichiro, you should show Daniel around the mall tomorrow – behind the station? It's not as big as the one near your school, Daniel, but it's got some nice little things. Maybe you could find a gift for your mother and father there?"

"I have to work on something for school tomorrow, Mom…I'm going to Sakamoto-kun's house."

"Oh…I'm sorry, Daniel, maybe you could look around there on your own?"

"It's okay, really!" He smiled as best he could, hoping to stop Mrs Oishi pursing her lips at Shuichiro, "Atobe invited me out tomorrow anyway, I'll just text him and say I can make it."

"Alright…"

Dinner went smoothly after that, with Eiji asking all of the exact same questions everyone else Daniel had met so far had asked him. He practically switched off as he answered the excitable boy, who was making odd little cat noises when he spoke. Nobody else seemed to have any issues with this. After dinner had been eaten and the dishes had been washed, Eiji and Shuichiro went out to the shoe cupboard.

"Are your parents alright with you getting home so late?" Mrs Oishi gave her son a scarf to keep out the cold, and Daniel hovered nearby.

"They're fine if I'm just visiting here – thank you again for having me!"

"It's our pleasure. Shuichiro, text me when you're on your way home, and stay safe!"

"Yes mom…"

"See you next week, Kikumaru-kun."

"Goodbye. Bye Daniel! Let's all hang out sometime, nya!"

"Yeah, let's…nya."

The front door closed, and Daniel went to have a shower and get ready for bed. Before he turned in for the night, he made sure to confirm the next day's plans with Atobe, uploaded his photos and sent another email to his parents.

'_Would you still love me if I started making cat noises in every sentence? Japanese parents are very forgiving. Tea and cake tomorrow with one of my guy friends…alright Japan, alright.'_


	5. Wait, What?

As the next couple of weeks went by, Daniel found himself settling into his new life very quickly. Gakuto's birthday went well, after Shishido had dragged Daniel out to the mall after school and nudged him in the direction of a CD Gakuto had apparently been wanting forever, and the redhead had already taken him out hunting for Shishido's present ready for _his_ birthday at the end of the month. Classes mostly consisted of taking notes, save for English Conversation classes that, as the teacher had been sick since the end of the summer, were a free conversation session monitored by one of the other teachers. They were _supposed_ to be speaking English in these sessions, but hardly anyone ever did. It was a relief, really – Daniel was rather tired of being used as a language model in his classes, and he and Atobe spoke entirely in English when it was just the two of them, which was quite often.

The days would have blended into one another were it not for Wednesday lunch breaks, when the sports clubs all seemed to have meetings and Daniel would go downstairs to spend the hour with Arata-senpai instead. It was a nice change of scenery, and a good way to break up the routine of 'class with tennis team, lunch with tennis team, class with tennis team, hang out with tennis team' that he had fallen into. Really, what had once been a sea of similar faces had soon become familiar and safe to Daniel; the train was no longer a crowd of hostile strangers in a cramped space, but a silent conversation with unspoken friends. The amount of things that could be said with one look or simple gesture was vast, and he could have sworn he had an entire extended conversation with the guy opposite him solely by wiggling their eyebrows once. His classmates were all easy to tell apart now, and even other students around the school were more differentiated than they were before. Some of the first years still giggled 'a foreigner!' when he walked by, but not many.

In simple terms, Daniel was finally fitting in, and his life in Japan was fitting around him just fine. He could have more informal conversations with people now, which was nice – not everybody was desperate to impress anymore.

This was made evident one day after English class, when Oshitari and Taki were busy doing their homework essays and Atobe had some important phone calls to make. With none of his usual crowd to talk to, Daniel wandered over to Naho's desk to see what she and Ribbon were reading.

"Manga?" He did his best to smile naturally, still unused to talking to girls. Manga was another one of those Japanese things he was trying to learn about, "what is it about?"

Ribbon shut her book without a word, but Naho handed hers to Daniel gladly. "Take a look! You might find it interesting." Daniel opened the book and flipped through a few pages, not noticing Ribbon making a move to hide under her desk. His attention was rather taken by the image of two (supposedly, though this was only really evident through the dialogue) male characters kissing. Oh. It was one of _those_ manga. He returned the book to Naho, who was trying her best not to laugh. "Finished already? How was it?"

"…interesting?" That did it, and Naho had to cover her mouth as she laughed loudly.

"It's Ribbon-chan's."  
"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is, she's got a ton of these, haven't you, Ribbon-chan?"

"No!" The quieter girl could only whine in protest.

"I try to get her to read something else, anything else, but nooooo."

Naho's laughter was quite infectious, and Daniel had to make a conscious effort not to grin. It apparently failed, as Ribbon looked very upset and left the room. The other girl stopped laughing eventually as she and Daniel watched Ribbon leave.

"Oh dear."

"Um. I lied. It's not hers. It's mine, actually."

"I could tell."

"I was only teasing – she's so sensitive! I don't even know what she shut her book for anyway; this comic is all about the story. The only _thing_ that happens, you already saw! It's not bad!" Daniel didn't really care what it was, and suggested that Naho go find Ribbon and make sure she was alright. As she left, Daniel noticed that Oshitari hadn't written anything since he'd gone over to speak to the girls. The bespectacled boy was about to say something, but then Gakuto burst through the door and started chattering away.

Clearly, there was something Oshitari needed to say.

* * *

Whatever it was, he didn't have the chance to say it for quite a while, as the pair were never alone together. Just as Oshitari tried to speak, someone else would appear and he would fall silent again. As the last week of September rolled around, The Mysterious Thing Oshitari Had To Say™ became more and more urgent, as he would even start trying to initiate a conversation when other members of the tennis team were around. It seemed as though it was _Atobe_ who was the party to be kept in the dark, as whenever Atobe was around Oshitari would completely clam up.

During Monday afternoon homeroom, Oshitari looked just about ready to explode. Well, by Oshitari standards, anyway, which meant he looked mildly disgruntled and kept turning his pencil in his fingers, glancing to Daniel and then away again without a word. After Uchii had reminded everybody that sports day was in a couple of days and 2-1 _had_ to win for their grade again this year, there was some important business to be dealt with.

"Okay, everybody!" Naho stood at the front of the class with Atobe, as the two class representatives, and the teacher, "this is _very_ important. We still don't have our event planned for the culture festival planned yet, and it's only two months away! All of the other classes are already preparing theirs, and we don't want to look bad!"

"So," Atobe took a piece of chalk and drew two columns on the chalkboard, "'who is going to be able to take part in our class's event?' is the question. I, for one, will not be able to as I must represent the tennis club at our own event. As the captain, this is only to be expected." He wrote his own name in the column with an X over the top.

"I'll be there." Naho wrote her own name in the other column, under an O.

Masuda-sensei read out the register, and each student confirmed whether or not they would be able to make the event. Oshitari was to be taking part in the tennis club event with Atobe, but Taki was not. Ribbon didn't have any commitments either, but Uchii needed to be with the basketball club. After the whole class had been called, there were ten names in the O column; this didn't seem like many people to run an event in Daniel's opinion, but Naho looked positively overjoyed.

"This will be sufficient." Atobe nodded, putting a little tick next to the larger column. "Half of the group can run the event at one time, to allow the others to enjoy the festival for a while before switching over."

"So, now we need some ideas, people!"

"Haunted house!" One of the boys shouted, but Masuda-sensei shook her head. Apparently one of the first year classes was doing that already.

"Cosplay café!"

"_No_."

"We could sell stuff?"

"Run some games?"

"Put on a show!"

"We could have a tea house." Everyone looked at Taki, who was doodling in the corner of his math book. "Think about it – we have Daniel, who is from England. Atobe grew up in England, too. With their help, we could make it like a proper English tea house! With afternoon tea and scones and things. Atobe won't be able to run it with us, but you could probably help out with some pretty displays in English, couldn't you?"

The class's attention turned to Atobe, who was exchanging questioning looks with his fellow representative and the teacher.

"How would scones work? The home economics kitchens are all the way downstairs."

"We could make them in advance. I bake, and you do too, don't you, Ribbon-chan?" Ribbon smiled nervously when everyone looked at her. "If even half the class brought in a box of scones or two, and Ribbon-chan and I made more, someone could bring in one of those little microwave ovens and we can just warm them up as needed. We're allowed those, aren't we sensei? There was a class last year selling those candied sweet potatoes."

Masuda-sensei clapped in approval, and asked the class what they thought of the idea. There was a short vote, and it was done.

"Simple, classy and quality. Class 2-1 _will_ have the best event this year!" Atobe underlined 'English tea house' on the chalkboard, and the class cheered.

Homeroom ended early that day, as Atobe and Naho had to take their idea to the teacher in charge of the entire culture festival to outline everything they were going to need and make sure it was allowed – though it undoubtedly would be, formality was a prized thing at Hyoutei, it seemed, if not Japan in general. Most of the class left the room to get a head start on their way home or go to their after school clubs early, but Oshitari and Taki stayed behind. Gakuto, Shishido and Jiroh came in too; once the last of Daniel's other classmates had gone and their own class homeroom was over.

"Hey! We heard cheering, have you finally made some progress on your-"

"Not now, Gakuto." Oshitari's voice was stern, and his words blunt. "We're telling him."

"Telling who? Me?" Daniel looked around at the others, who just nodded.

"Yeah, you." Gakuto sat on top of the lockers (as they were only about chest-height) and kicked his legs about a little. "Yuushi says Naho showed you some manga last week."  
"Yes…?" So Oshitari had been listening to his conversation after all. Why on earth would he do that? It wasn't exactly interesting.

"Wasn't it…you know…"

"Gay?" Jiroh and Taki giggled.

"Yeah, gay. Are you cool with that kind of thing?"

"Uh, yes? I mean it doesn't bother me. It's just a comic."

"What about in real life?" Gakuto's questions were getting a little weird by now, but Oshitari and Shishido's expressions (arguably the most serious of the group) remained unamused. Daniel could only shrug.

"I guess? I don't really care either way."

"Okay, good. See, Atobe's got a boyfriend."

…what? Daniel really needed to work on his poker face, as his bemusement was clearly perfectly obvious to everybody else. He decided to voice his feelings out loud. "…what?"

"A boyfriend. Atobe's gay. The guy's not from our school though."  
"Mizuki Hajime." Oshitari pushed up his glasses. "He's like Atobe in a lot of ways, but less controlled."

"Imagine if Atobe and Taki had a sparkly gay flamboyant snobby baby," Gakuto ignored Taki's complaints, "then make him a total and complete dickweed. That's Mizuki all over."

"Guys…it's nice that you're telling me this, but uh, why?" Really, what was the need? It wasn't exactly any of Daniel's business who the others were dating. Apparently this wasn't true in Hyoutei.

"It's Atobe's birthday on October 4th." Gakuto stopped, as if Daniel was going to understand everything from that one statement. "They're very on-off, and they've been off since before you got here, so that's probably why Atobe hasn't said anything about it. Since it's almost Atobe's birthday, they're probably going to be back on soon, and well, you're going to have to find out eventually."

"We wanted to make sure you were okay with that before Atobe told you himself."

"Well, uh…it's not really my business to be honest; I don't have a problem with that."

The tennis team looked relieved. "Good…" Shishido relaxed a little, then quickly checked outside for any eavesdroppers. There was nobody there.

"So…yeah, we'd better be getting to practice now. You coming along to watch today?"

"Not today," Daniel shook his head, "I've got stuff to do at home."

"Okay then. See you tomorrow, Daniel."

"Bye."

* * *

As he helped his host mother with the chores that evening, Daniel was very much distracted; his thoughts were on his classmates' announcement from earlier that day. He didn't have a _problem_ with Atobe having a boyfriend, no, but it was something he'd always had a pretty good sense for, and he was a little miffed at having not figured it out himself. It put a couple of Atobe's little habits into perspective, at least.

One such oddity that Daniel had noticed before was when he'd been invited over to Atobe's house the previous weekend. While he was being shown around the Atobe heir's enormous bedroom, he'd gone to have a look at a shelf that held a line of framed photographs, all perfectly evenly spaced. Atobe with his parents, Atobe with the tennis team, Atobe with…someone Daniel didn't recognise, but they were probably someone famous; a young Atobe with two non-Japanese children…and then an empty space. It was just the right size space to fit another photo frame into, but there was nothing there. He pointed this out to Atobe.

"_Ah, the frame broke for that photo,"_ Atobe had said. _"It matched the others, though, so I'm waiting for it to be repaired."_

"_What was it a photo of?"_

"_Nothing important."_

Maybe it was a photo of Atobe and his boyfriend? Since they were 'off' and all…

It was thoughts like this that kept Daniel in a sort of distant trance all evening; it was a wonder he managed to even get his dinner into his mouth, he was so completely elsewhere in his mind. Somehow, though, he managed to get through his evening with some semblance of normalcy, and before he even knew it, it was time for bed.

Naturally, time zone differences made bedtime the best possible time for one of Daniel's friends back in England to contact him via instant messenger.

'_Hey Dannyboy!'_

Daniel grimaced, typing out his reply. _'Don't call me that'_

'_Yo yo yo wassup my homie?'_

'_No. Don't talk like that. It's actually against the law for you to talk like that because your name is _Giles_.'_

'_Daniel, I am still years away from going to university to study law, but both of us know that you just made that up.'_

'_So defensive.'_

'_I don't want to be defence; I want to be a prosecutor'_

'_Oh, la-di-da' _He couldn't help but smile as his friend's colourful choice of font appeared on the screen; they hadn't had a proper long conversation since before Daniel left England.

'_How goes life in the land of the rising sun?'_

'_It's dark, actually'_

'_Alright, clever dick. I've been following your Facebook and stuff though, it looks amazing!'_

A self-satisfied grin. _'Yeah, it is pretty amazing. Totally different to England!'_

'_I am so jealous. I love your pictures, too – there's girls in your class!'_

'_Yeah, they're not too bad, actually.'_

'_Are those all your new mates in the pictures? Like at the karaoke joint?'_

'_Yeah, they're my new mates. I've decided they're far better than my old ones and I don't need you guys anymore.' _Daniel chuckled to himself when he received a long string of exclamation marks as a reply, and the IM system told him that Giles was 'typing' again immediately after. After a good two minutes, though, he wondered if his friend had taken it personally. _'I was joking, plonker.'_

'…_I knew that. Besides, you love us too much. Sixth Form is so crap without you, you know. We were always going to take English Literature together! Now I have to sit next to Marcus! _Marcus!_'_

'_Hahaha'_

'_So your new classmates are nice then?'_

'_They're nice. Not too mental, anyway, but I seem to have been taken under the wings of the loopy ones.'_

'_Sounds just like back at home then. Learn anything fascinating at Japanese school(!) today?'_

He thought for a moment. _'I did, actually. Keep a secret?'_

'_If I tell a soul, kick me in the balls.'_

'_Holding you to it. One of my classmates is into boys, apparently.'_

'_No way! How did you find that out – did he make a pass at you?'_

'_No! The others told me. Apparently I might be in a situation in which I could meet the other half soon, so they wanted to tell me before he did to make sure I was okay with it.'_

Giles' delayed response concerned Daniel a little bit. When he thought about it, though, it was most likely his old classmate was laughing.

'_Hah! You, against it!? You should tell them that story about when we all went to London Pride with Duncan and that one guy…'_

'_No. Nobody needs to know that story.'_

'_It's bloody hilarious!'_

'_I'm going to bed. Goodnight.'_


	6. Good Sports

As he stood on the train on his way to the stadium where sports day was being held, Daniel's thoughts were wandering. It took everything he had to break out of daydreams and listen out for what stop they were at. He was just too preoccupied with thinking about the previous afternoon.

**-yesterday-**

"_Sports day tomorrow, Daniel_." Atobe had said as he neatened a stack of papers on his desk. Not his normal desk, mind you, but his desk in his office. Daniel thought it strange that Atobe actually had his own _office _at school, but by this point he'd realised there was really no point in trying to make sense of anything at Hyoutei. "_I hope you're feeling confident_."  
"_Enough, but not totally."_ That was an understatement – he was internally freaking out about doing the fifty-metre sprint the next day against Shishido. Every step the other boy took made Daniel nervous, sizing up the competition.  
He even _walked_ way too fast.  
"_As long as you don't embarrass yourself utterly, everything will be fine. Is anyone going to be coming along to watch you?_"  
"_Nah, my host family are busy_…"  
"_There, you'll be fine_." The tennis captain began to pack up his things.  
"_How about you? Is anyone going to be watching you?"_  
Atobe scoffed. "Everybody_ will be watching me, Daniel, don't be absurd_." He smiled smugly, but when he realised Daniel was still watching him closely, he knew that wasn't the answer the international student was looking for. He sat on his desk. "_Well…there is, in fact, one person coming along just to watch me. I don't know whether or not this will surprise you, Daniel, but I have a significant other._"  
Daniel probably would have been somewhat more surprised had he not known everything already. He smiled and nodded and ooh-ed and ahh-ed in all the right places as Atobe told him about his boyfriend, oblivious to the fact Daniel knew everything he was being told.  
"_Well, Atobe, I'm totally cool with everything. I look forward to meeting Mizuki-kun tomorrow."_ Daniel grinned and rummaged in his bag for some bubblegum. He offered a piece to Atobe, who took it.  
"_Thank you. Although, I don't recall ever mentioning my boyfriend's name. Would you care to explain how you came to know it?"_  
Daniel froze. "_Uh…theotherstoldmedon'tkillthemokaytheyjustwantedt omakesureIwascoolwithitbefor eyoutoldmedon'tkillthem!"_ He glanced up at Atobe, smiled awkwardly, and coughed. Atobe just smirked at him in return.  
"_Well…I suppose it was probably Oshitari and Gakuto's idea, so I'm sure they won't mind me telling you a little secret of their own. They, too, are dating_."  
…what? Daniel voiced his feelings on the matter. "…_what?"_  
"_That isn't really the way to put it. They're _attempting_ to date. They're not very good at it, though."_ Atobe checked his watch. "_Well, I must be off. See you tomorrow, Daniel, and good luck_."  
Before Daniel could say anything else, he found himself alone in Atobe's office; surprised, somewhat confused, and hit with the realisation that he'd left his P.E. kit in the classroom upstairs.

**-today-**

'_Don't get your arse kicked today'_ read the email from Giles that suddenly popped up on Daniel's phone, and the international student smiled weakly. It was meant in good fun, but really not what he needed at that moment.  
_'Grateful for your support, I guess. Go to bed.'  
'Good luck'_  
It was all Daniel could do to keep smiling as the doors opened at the next stop and two boys in Hyoutei High uniforms got into his carriage. Two familiar boys. Choutarou nodded politely to Daniel while Shishido greeted him with a fist bump, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet as if he were itching to start running.  
_'I'm gonna need it.'_

The arena was enormous, more befitting of a national sporting event than a school sports day – but then, by this point Daniel had come to realise that Hyoutei did not do things in halves. Students were filing into the building through one entrance, while some other people were going in another; Daniel followed his fellow students in through the right entrance, and made his way into a side room with several other male students to get changed into his sports uniform.

Taki greeted him, "hi Daniel! Feeling nervous? Did you bring lunch?"  
"Yes and yes. I am actually so nervous I can't even think about lunch without wanting to throw up."  
"Aw, you'll be fine." The other boy gave Daniel a comforting pat on the shoulder, before starting to change. "It's going to be a fun day, I think. Sit next to me in the stands, if you like – my sister came to watch!"

Daniel was going to ask Taki more about his sister, but was interrupted by a distressed squeal from Taki as Gakuto snapped a t-shirt at his backside.  
"Now boys, no monkey business!" a stern-sounding voice called into the room, and even Gakuto was momentarily silenced. "You must uphold our reputation. There's a team from the local newspaper here today."  
As whines of 'my acne!' and 'I haven't shaaaaaaaved!' came from around the boys' changing room, all Daniel could think was _'oh, bugger.'  
_The boys around him sniggered, and he realised he must have said that out loud. Oops. Didn't make him any happier about the possibility of his embarrassment being immortalised in print, though.

After a while, Atobe appeared – looking picture-perfect in his uniform as always – and gathered up the members of class 2-1, leading them into the hall to meet with the girls.

"Remember, everyone. We are class 2-1. We are the best class, the most refined class, the most talented class. We are the class who are here to win. And we will win! The winner will be class 2-1!" the group cheered when Atobe finished, not minding the catcalls from the other second year classes, before making their way into the arena in a neat, orderly line.  
After all, they had to be on their best behaviour.

In the arena, the students sat in their classes in single-file lines on the floor, with class representatives at the front – Atobe in 2-1's case. The principal said a few words that Daniel wasn't really listening to; he was too busy looking around at the stands. The arena was decorated with posters, Hyoutei High flags were hanging from above the doorways, and a whole section of the stands was full of friends and family members, eagerly waiting for their loved ones to have their events. Suddenly Daniel was aware of everyone around him standing up, and some music began to play.

The school song – the lyrics were on the back of the student handbook, but Daniel hadn't gotten around to learning them yet. Not that it made much difference, as they were still a little too complicated for the international student to understand. They sounded typically Hyoutei, though. As the song droned on and on, it became apparent that the boy behind Daniel wasn't even singing, and Taki's knowledge of the lyrics was shaky from the second verse on. Atobe seemed to be word-perfect, though, and he was fortunately at the front. Score one for class 2-1.

The song ended, everyone sat down, and after some more rambling from the principal, the students once again stood up and made their way to the stands. Some smiled and waved to their friends and family in the stands as they went, but Daniel just wanted to get sat down as soon as possible. As he took his seat, he realised Oshitari wasn't with the rest of the class. He leaned over the railing at the front of the stands, looking down into the arena for any sign of his blue-haired classmate.  
"Oshitari," Daniel almost fell straight over the railing when Atobe popped up behind him from seemingly nowhere, "is in the second event. I trust you will be cheering for him as loudly as you can? We will, of course, be doing the same for you."  
Daniel cringed. "Sure, I will."

'Now for our first event. Will the participants in the first year boys' two-hundred metre race take their places at the starting line…'

* * *

"The winner will be class 2-1!"  
"Go class 2-3!"  
"You can do it, Sho-kun!"  
"Run run run!"  
"Hurry up!"  
"Class 3-4 are the best!"  
"Do your best!"  
"Win win win!"  
"Go go go!"

The energy in the arena was insane. The atmosphere was buzzing and screaming and cheering only seemed to get louder with every event that went by. Sprints, relays, and plain running races started and stopped, with cheering and booing (mostly courtesy of Gakuto) as the lump in Daniel's throat grew ever larger.  
He wasn't ready.  
He was _not_ ready.

'Will the participants in the first year boys' fifty-metre sprint take their places at the starting line…'  
"Daniel, Daniel you're in the race after this one!" Taki started to push him in the direction of the stairs, but Daniel found himself rooted to his seat.  
"Good luck, Daniel-kun." Ribbon smiled weakly from the row behind, red in the face and out of breath after placing a 'respectable' third out of six in the girls' hurdles.  
"I…"  
"I just came last in my race, Daniel." Another boy in the class helped to haul Daniel, whose feet suddenly felt rather heavy, out of his seat. "You'll do fine."  
"Okay…" swallowing anxiously, he made his way from the stands to the arena, as the first year sprinters set off. It didn't look like a very long race, but it wasn't the endurance factor that worried Daniel.  
It was a certain one of his opponents, who was currently tying his shoelaces and waiting for the first year race to end. With a sigh, Daniel tapped Shishido's shoulder.  
"Huh?"  
"…congratulations."  
"We haven't raced yet."  
"The race doesn't need to have happened for me to congratulate you on first place."

'Will the participants in the second year boys' fifty-metre sprint take their places at the starting line…'

"You'd better win, Ryoh!" Gakuto yelled from the stands. Daniel swallowed hard, and got into position.

"_On your marks…"_ Daniel wasn't sure of the proper stance to take when racing, but did his best to copy the boys either side of him.  
_"Set…"_ he squeezed his eyes shut and willed himself not to pass out right there from nerves.  
_"Go!"_

Chaos. If the noise had been loud enough from the stands, it was even louder when coupled with the stamping of feet and the pounding of pulses.  
"Go Shishido!"  
"Run, Daniel!"  
"You can do it!"  
"Nacchi!"  
"Gooooo!"  
"Do your best, Daniel-kun!"  
Daniel could vaguely make out his name being called as he ran, but didn't stop to think about it. Shishido dashed ahead like a greyhound in a snail race, but when he was thinking with his feet instead of his head, Daniel found himself strangely unconcerned by how fast Shishido was running.  
"Faster faster faster!"  
"Run!"  
"Move, Shishido!"  
"Almost there!"  
What did concern him, however, was the sudden realisation that there were four other boys running in the race against him that were not Shishido, and they were all incredibly close behind him.

He shut his eyes again and kept running, hoping he didn't crash into any teachers.

Before Daniel knew it, the race was over. The gym teacher was announcing the results, but his mind was too hazy to pick up on where he had placed. Staggering a little as he tried to keep himself upright, he felt an arm around his waist leading him back in the direction of the stands.

"Don't puke." Shishido had a hint of a smile in his voice. "I like these sneakers."  
"Sorry…"  
"You did good – guy from class 2-5 faceplanted at the finish line."  
"Where did I place?"

"Daniel!" a small crowd of class 2-1 students took Daniel from Shishido once the pair reached the stands, patting his back and babbling. "Second! Second place behind Shishido! Well done!"  
"That is essentially a win, disregarding Shishido because he's a freak." Oshitari handed Daniel a bottle of water, which he took gratefully.  
"There now, was that so bad?" Taki ruffled Daniel's hair on his way past, making his way out of the stands for the next event. "All worked up over nothing. I've got the high jump now, which is going to be…" He pulled a face as Gakuto bounded by, making an offensive gesture with his hands, "…unpleasant. Wish me luck!"

Daniel mumbled something that vaguely resembled 'good luck' as he collapsed into his seat.

* * *

The rest of sports day passed smoothly once the stress of Daniel's solo event was out of the way. There was a break in the middle of the day for the students to eat lunch and rest followed by some displays from the dance and baton clubs, then the third year classes each did a group dance they had choreographed themselves. Some of the classes had bright, flashy costumes and props, while others had some impressive choreography. While class 3-1 were dancing to some squeaky idol track Daniel had heard Taki singing at karaoke, he managed to spot a familiar face in the middle of the group, done up with face paint and the usual ponytail tied with a neon ribbon.  
"Arata-senpai." He grinned as he watched the proceedings, snapping a few photos to keep for later.

The events that followed were mostly group events, like tug-of-war and skipping. Class 2-3 won the skipping by a mile as they had Gakuto in their skipping team (well, maybe not a mile, as Gakuto's endurance wasn't impressive and had class 2-5's final team member lasted just a few minutes more Gakuto would have been out) and 2-1 won back the momentum in the tug of war. There had been a slight delay in starting the second year tug-of-war, actually, since class 1-1 had wiped the floor with the rest of the first year classes thanks to their having Kabaji in the line-up and several students had fallen over.  
The final events had been the relays. The largest second year class had twenty-two students, so the classes with fewer members had to get some people to run twice. Naturally, class 2-3 got Shishido to run twice, but many other members of the group were slow, and unable to keep up the lead Shishido gave them. Daniel couldn't help but grin as he handed the baton to Atobe, who was preparing for his second run.  
_"The winner will be class 2-1."_ Atobe chuckled and took the baton; while in the lane next to them Jiroh accidentally dropped the baton he was meant to be receiving from Shishido.  
_"That we will."_

And they were.  
When the events were all finished and the points had been tallied up, all of the students returned to their neat, single-file lines in the middle of the arena and a small stage was set up for the principal to stand on and address the students. There was a lot of rambling in old-person Japanese that Daniel couldn't quite catch, but he got the important part: the winners were classes 1-1, 2-1 and 3-2. The three winning classes erupted into cheers, while the rest of the school clapped politely. The class representatives had to go up onto the stage and accept trophies from the principal and have their photos taken by the newspaper team, before the students were dismissed.

"Atobe! Can I get a photo of you and the trophy?"  
"Ahn? Why not have one of both of us? Kabaji, take a photograph of Daniel and I."  
"Yes."  
Daniel put his camera back in his bag as students milled about in the stands, chatting with each other and their friends and family and putting off going to get changed just yet. He had never been the most sport-oriented guy in the world, so he now had some nice photos to surprise everyone back at home with on Facebook. Just as Daniel was congratulating Uchii on taking first place in all of her events, he became aware of an unfamiliar presence in the class 2-1 area of the stands.

A boy Daniel didn't recognise; about the same height as he was, with a rather sulky expression and sporting a very…interesting purple sweater. He was talking to Atobe, but also seemed to be keeping his distance at the same time.  
_"Ah, Daniel, excellent timing."_ Atobe nodded and smiled, disregarding his companion's obvious discomfort at the sudden switch to English. _"I would like you to meet Mizuki."_  
_Mizuki._ So this was Atobe's boyfriend. There was an uncomfortable silence; Mizuki obviously sizing Daniel up before he spoke.  
"It is nice to meet you, Daniel-san."  
Daniel-_san_? Daniel was somewhat taken aback – the only person who called him that was Choutarou in the year below, and that was because he spoke to everybody like that. There was an obvious line being drawn in the sand here, and Daniel felt it would be best to stay on his side of the line.  
"Nice to meet you too, Mizuki-san."  
The other boy looked a little uncomfortable, lacing his fingers together, and Daniel wondered if Mizuki felt like he should shake Daniel's hand or something – many people felt the need to do so when they were introduced to him despite the practice not being remotely Japanese and the only times Daniel had ever shaken someone's hand were when he was introduced to very important people. Was shaking hands really the best idea? He was probably all sweaty and gross from sports day…Atobe seemed to pick up on this as well, and pulled out a small towel from his bag.

"_Dry your hands on this, Daniel."_ He handed over the towel, which Daniel used gratefully. He then shook Mizuki's hand politely.  
A handshake could really communicate a lot.

"Atobe," Mizuki started to talk as if Daniel wasn't there anymore, "congratulations on your victories today."  
"They were to be expected, but thank you, anyway. I appreciate your making the journey to come and watch today."  
"It was to be expected, but thank you, anyway."

The whole atmosphere was more distant and awkward than that time Daniel's friend Sebastian fell over into a random girl's lap on the train, and it made Daniel very uncomfortable. Without any announcement, he took his leave and headed for the changing room.

When he got there, a small pack of freshening wipes was thrust into his face.  
"Peach scented – Taki brought a ton. What kind of sports place doesn't have any fuckin' showers?!" Gakuto continued to wave the pack of wipes in Daniel's face until the taller boy took them from him, and then he left Daniel alone to change. As he buttoned up his shirt and more students left the room, he turned to Taki, who was beside him.  
"I don't think Mizuki-san likes me very much."  
"Oh, you met him?" Taki looked amused. "He doesn't like any of us, it's okay. We don't like him either."  
"Ah…"  
"I have to run and meet my sister now. See you next week, okay?" Taki waved, picked up his bag and left the room, leaving Daniel on his own in the room with lots of students he didn't know. The sudden awkwardness of being on his own caused Daniel to speed up in getting changed so he could leave, too; leaving behind the large, glowing arena and making his way through the unfamiliar part of the city in search of the train station.

* * *

"Howdy, stranger."  
"Ah!"  
Daniel didn't appreciate being tapped on the shoulder when he was walking alone at night in a part of the city he didn't know, and was all set to put up a fight and run away before he found himself in front of Arata-senpai.  
"I'm not gonna kidnap or murder you! Probably! We just seemed to be walking the same way. Want to walk?" He said this as though he was giving Daniel a choice in the matter, falling into step beside him as they continued on their way to the train station. "Congrats on your class winning second year today."  
"Ah, thanks. I saw your dancing."  
"You did? Crap. I had hoped nobody would spot me." Arata laughed. "You didn't see me trip, did you?"  
"Oh yes."  
"Double crap."  
The two boys reached the station just in time to hop on a train – weirdly enough, there were even free seats for a change. Daniel took the seat on the end of the row while Arata took the one beside him. Sports bag on his lap, Daniel could have fallen asleep right there in his seat. He yawned.  
"I am so tired."  
"Same. I wish I could just sleep the weekend away, but I've got plans. How about you?"  
This weekend? No, Daniel's only plan was studying, sleeping, doing some homework and possibly being dragged out to karaoke by Shuichiro and Eiji if they had meant what they said the previous Saturday over dinner. He told his senpai this. "I'm busy next weekend, though." With Atobe's birthday, of all things. He still didn't know what to wear, and the present he'd ordered online had yet to arrive…  
"Aw balls, I was hoping we could hang out next weekend. If you'd be cool with hanging out with me, I mean."  
"Sure?" Daniel checked his watch and hoped he'd be home in time for dinner. Arata was checking his phone; apparently he had some kind of calendar on there.  
"Ugh, and I'm busy the weekend after that, and the one after that, and then there's the class trip so I won't even be around for _that_ weekend…"  
"Your class is having a trip too?" The second years, bar Daniel, were going to Italy for a week near the end of October. He wasn't aware that the other grades had trips abroad as well. The others had hoped Daniel could join them, but apparently international students didn't go on these trips due to visa complications, and he was going to have the week off instead. "My class are all going to Italy. Aside from me, I mean. Internationals can't go."  
"Really? That sucks. We're going to Hawaii! I think the first years are going to Austria or something…so I guess we can't hang out on _any_ weekend for the whole of next month, then." Arata looked a little dejected, pouting and puffing out his cheeks.  
"November? All we've got then is the culture festival, isn't it? I can keep a weekend free."  
"Oh yeah! November! Oh, I have to get off here, have you?" The pair stood up as the train pulled into a station. The older boy continued his babble as they made their way along the platform and through the station. "We should hang out in November." He made a turn towards the ticket gates, while Daniel had intended to keep walking straight ahead.  
"I'm changing train…"  
"I normally would too, but I'm seeing a movie around here with my family tonight. Let's talk more about our playdate over the weekend!"  
"But how-"  
"Your phone, doofus! I improved it, remember? See ya!" And so, Arata ran off in the direction of the ticket gates, messily-tied ponytail swinging behind him as he went. Daniel shook his head with a smile and continued on his way through the station.

He'd had a busy day, so walking through the station on his own was actually quite relaxing – it was quiet, the lighting was relatively subdued and there was a soft buzzing in the air of electricity and day-to-day chatter. As Daniel wandered around, he noticed a small shop selling steamed pork buns in boxes of four. They looked amazing, and smelled amazing, too.  
He got out his phone.  
'Have I missed dinner yet?' he wrote to his host mother. Mrs Oishi was always prompt with her replies.  
'About to start cooking it – why?'  
'Bringing a surprise.'  
Tucking the phone back into his pocket and getting his wallet instead, Daniel made his way over to the little shop. The man behind the counter smiled at him.  
_"Hello."_  
"Hi there. Could I have two boxes, please?"  
"Oh, you speak Japanese! Two boxes, two boxes…" he picked up a box and put four steamed buns into it, then he closed the box, put it on the counter and did the same with a second box. "That's one thousand five hundred yen. Would you like anything else?"  
"No thank you." Daniel rummaged in his wallet and managed to find the right combination of notes and coins. "Thank you."  
"Thank you. _Have a nice day_." The man put the two boxes of steamed buns in a bag, and Daniel couldn't resist a look inside the bag when he took it. He'd have to hurry home, before they got cold.  
Looking up at the electronic timetable, he winced and sprinted in the direction of his platform.  
He _just_ made it onto the train.

* * *

"Pork buns!" Yurie squealed when she arrived home halfway through dinner, having been at a friend's house working on a project. She took her seat at the table excitedly, almost knocking over Shuichiro's drink as she scrambled up.  
"Daniel brought them back with him." Daniel smiled a little bit as he helped himself to some more rice – he hadn't expected his host family to be so happy with something simple like that. "How was your day, Yurie?"  
"Great! We got to take some photos in art class today, and it was super fun. The teacher said I'm a natural photographer!"  
"Maybe you should talk to Fuji-kun, then. He loves photography, too." Shuichiro put some more stewed vegetables on his plate, then onto Yurie's, ignoring her protests.  
"Anything interesting happen at school, Shuichiro?"  
"Not really, but I did have a biology test."  
"And did you do well?" Mr Oishi raised an eyebrow.  
"Ninety-eight." He cringed. "I got some kanji wrong in a question about lungs. I would have had everything right, otherwise."  
"Well, now you know which kanji to practise for next time, don't you?"  
"Yes Dad."  
"Daniel, a package arrived for you today, so I put it in your room." Atobe's present, in all likelihood. What excellent timing.  
"Oh! Daniel, Eiji wants to know if you're still up for hanging out with us tomorrow. Dinner and karaoke, if you're not busy?"  
"I'll be there." Noticing the pork buns were starting to cool a little bit, Daniel went back to concentrating on his food. Eventually dinner was eaten; some orange slices had been handed out ('winter is coming!' Mrs Oishi had said) and the dishes had been washed, so Daniel was able to have a shower and vanish upstairs to find his mail.

It turned out that there was not one, but two parcels sitting on Daniel's futon waiting for him. The first package was labelled with the name of the online shop Daniel had ordered Atobe's birthday present from, so he put that one to one side. The second was smaller, more messily wrapped, and the handwriting on the label was very familiar. "Oh man…"

A small calendar, obviously printed out from the internet and decorated with stickers and drawings and photographs of Daniel and his friends from back home in England. It went from September until the next August – how long Daniel was going to be in Japan for. Smiling and pinning the calendar to the little corkboard he had on his bedroom wall, he almost missed the note and small bars of English chocolate that were also inside the box.  
Almost.  
He read the note, opening one of the chocolate bars as he did so.

'_Daniel  
Get your arse home right now, we miss you. Good luck and have the time of your life and make every second count and all of that, but sixth form is a right load of bollocks without you. Look at our stunningly handsome faces every day until you realise how much you miss us and want to come home.  
Love, (no homo)  
Giles, Duncan, Sebastian, Oliver and Maximillian  
p.s. maybe a little bit of homo xoxoxox'_

Daniel just smiled and set about drawing moustaches on September's group photo.


End file.
